Article-transfer means



Dec. 15,1925. 1,565,584

a; W. N. NEIDIG ARTICLE 'rnmsma mamas Filed Feb. 21, 1925 Patented Dec. 15, 1925.

UNITED STATES WILLIAM N. NEIDIG, OF TOLEDO, OHIO.

ARTICLE-TRANSFER MEANS.

Application filed February 21, 1925. Serial No. 10,802.

To alt whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVILLIAM N. NEIDIG, a citizenof the United States, and a resident of Toledo, in the county of Lucas and the State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Article-Transfer Means, which invention is fully set forth in the following speciiication.

My invention has for its object to provide a means whereby an article may be conveniently transferred from a storage position to one of convenient accessibility. The invention may be used for the handling of books and bones and other similar articles of approximately rectangular shape. The invention is particularly advantageous in the handling of reference devices such as large books, files and containers for, or temporarily bound cards or sheets to which constant repeated reference must be made. In the preferred form or embodiment of the invention the reference device is normally contained within an enclosure for its protection as well as for its disposal when not in use. A cover for enclosing the container is preferably used for transferring the article from within the container to a position wherein ready reference may be made and also to restore the article to within the container by the operation of the cover.

The invention may be contained in structures that difier in their forms and may be used in connection with reference devices of different forms. To illustrate a practical application of the invention and to describe an embodiment of the invention, I have selee-ted a structure containing the invention as an example of such structures and shall describe it hereinafter. The structure selected is shown in the accompanying drawing. V

Figure 1 of the drawing is an end view, partly in section of the structure selected as an example, showing the transfer means for transferring a book from within a container to the position of convenient reference. Fig. 2 illustrates the cover partly opened. Fig. 23 illustrates the cover entirely opened and the book in position to be referred to. Fig. ii is a top View of a part of the structure.

In the form of construction shown in the drawing the reference device is normally stored or contained in a stand. It, however, may be contained within any form of container such as a desk or table. The structure shown in the drawing is particularly adapted for the use of heavy books such as dictionaries. The stand may be made up in any attractive form to harmonize with the furniture of the home or of the room in which the stand is located. It may, however, be in the formof a library table or cabinet, having a part thereof enclosed for containing the reference book. The stand or table 1 is provided with a cover 2 that is hinged to the stand as at 3. The. top of the stand 1 is provided with the enclosed space 4 that is closed by the bottom wall 5 and the side 6, and the cover 2. The cover 2 forms the top of the stand in the form of structure F shown in the drawing and thus the stand may be used for other purposes When the reference article is stored within the top of the stand. A strip of fabric material 7 may be connected to one of the side walls 6 of the stand and the conveyor 2. A plurality of strips of fabric may be used in place of the single strips shown in the drawing.

The reference article such as the book 8, is supported on the fabric 7. The width of the fabric 7 is sufficient to sustain the book 8 without danger of its slipping from either side edge of the fabric. In order to secure the book 8 in a definite position with reference to the fabric 7 and yet permit ready removal of the book from the fabric, a board 9 1S secured to the fabric 7 in such a position relative to the fabric, that the book 8 will be preferably held suspended within the enclosed space 4 in the top of the stand and it is connected to the cover 2 at a point such that when the cover 2 is opened so that its upper surface is substantially in the same plane as the edges of the side 6, the fabric 7 would be drawn taut as between its point of connection with the cover 2 and one of the sides 6 to which the other end of the fabric is connected. In order to prevent the book 8 from sliding on to the fabric the board 9 may be provided with a flange 10 that engages and holds the book in position while it is being raised and which will receive and position the book when it is being stored within the container formed with in the top of the stand. In order that the cover may constitute a support for a part ofthe book the hinges 3 are preferably butt hinges which sustain the top surface of the cover substantially within the plane of the upper edges of the sides 6 of the container, and thus the book may be opened, and partially supported when open, by the cover 2.

7 although the book may be very heavy.

Notwithstanding the tautness to which the fabric 7 may be drawn by the cover 2 there will be some sag in the fabric and to correct this in order to maintain a substantially plane supporting surface for the book, a slight sag is permitted in the fabric and the board is made considerably thicker at the edge located along the edge of the cover that rests on the board which positions the upper surface of the board substantially in the plane of the upper surface of the cover 2 when in its open position and of the upper edges of the sides 6. However, to sustain the major portion of the weight of the book the stand may be provided with a ledge 11 over which the fabric 7 will slide and be guided. The upper surface of the ledge 11 is sloped so as to conform substantially to the wedge shape cross section of the board 9 to maintain a uniform supporting plane for the book.

li hen the book is being used it may be moved to any position or may be removed from the stand.

It may be in any place, or replaced in any position with reference to the cover when it is about to be restored. Mere closing of the over will cause the book to slide into its proper position with reference to the board 9 and the continued closing move ment of the cover will lower the book into storage position within the stand. The operation of transfering the book from one position to the other is done with the greatest possible ease because of the mechanical elements involved that greatly reduce the pressure required to raise and lower the boo-k On account of the alinement of the fabric practically with the pintles of the butt hinges 3 the combination of mechanical elements involved will sustain any weight even the limit of the strength of the fabric or the means whereby its ends are connected when the cover 2 is open.

An important feature of my invention arises from the fact that the articles for which my container is contrived are usually of more or less rectangular shape when viewedin a vertical plane, as in Figure 2 of the drawings, and on this account the successive positions assumed by the articles in the course of their transfer in and out of the container are quite different from what they would be if the article were of round or cylindrical section.

In the latter case, the article would roll along the flexible carrier 7, but where the article is of rectangular shape such rolling does not occur, and in the case of a book a rolling action would be rather undesirable, with the result that the action of removing or transferring such rectangular shaped article out of the container is a substantially different action than what it would be if the article were of. cylindrical shape and permitted to roll freely on the flexible carrier 7.

To provide for such removal of substantially rectangularly shaped articles from the container it is necessary, as clearly seen in Figure 2, that the width of the container at the top should be larger than the diagonal dimension taken across the corners of the substantially rectangularly shaped article. If this width of the container were not larger than the diagonal mentioned, the article might become cooked and caught in the opening in such way as to lock or bind itself and materially interfere with its easy removal from the container.

Again, as seen in Figure l, the article when in its normal position within the container, is positioned eccentrically thereof, the article actually being closed to the place where the flexible carrier is connected to the the fixed part of the container than to the place where the movable closure is hinged to said container.

This arrangen'ient of moderate eccentricity of the normal position ofthe article within the closed container as shown in Figure 1, and the greater width of the con tainer at the top, over the largest diagonal dimension of the article, as shown in Figure 2, results in a very nice movement of the article in transferring same in and out of the container. The article never becomes caught, or bound, at any point of the structure, and its removal and replacement is easily and quickly accomplished at all times.

Of course it is somewhat optional as to whether the wedge shaped member 9, or any equivalent, should be used, and if this member is omitted the book or other article will be somewhat free to slide along the flexible carrier 7 during the action of removing or replacing the article in the container, but in spite of such sliding the motion in and out of the container is still very smooth and regular, and no binding of the article is experienced, this freedom of movement being principally gained by the features of construction above referred to.

The shape of the article in the plan view, as in Figure l, is of course immaterial. It may be round, rectangular or otherwise in this view.

I claim:

1. In a device for transferring an article of substantially rectangular section in and out of a container, the combination of a container that is wider at the top than the diagonal dimension obtained in a vertical plane passing through said rectangularly shaped article, a movable closure for covering the top of said container, a flexible transfer means connected to a fixed part of said container and also to said movable closure, means for pivoting said movable closure to said container to permit the opening of said closure to a horizontal position Where the opening movement of said closure is arrested, the normal position of said substantially rectangularly shaped article When enclosed Within said container being eccentric thereof and closer to the place Where said flexible transfer means is connected to the fixed part of said container than to the place where said movable closure is pivotally connected to said container.

2. In an article transfer device, a container, a movable closure for said container, flexible transfer means connected to a fixed part of said container and also to said movable closure, means for pivoting said movable closure to said container to permit the opening of said closure to a horizontal position Where the opening movement is arrested, the flexible part of said 'transfer means spanning across the top of the open container when said movable closure is opened, and means for compensating for the sag of said flexible transfer means when the device is open.

3. In an article transfer device, a container, a movable closure for said container, flexible transfer means connected to a fixed part of said container and also to said movable closure, means for pivoting said movable closure to said container to permit the opening of said closure to a horizontal position Where the opening movement of said closure is arrested, and a Wedge shaped member carried by said transfer means With the thin edge thereof disposed toward the place Where said flexible transfer means is connected to the said movable closure, the said Wedge shaped member being adapted to compensate for the sag in said flexible transfer means.

4. In an article transfer device, a con tainer, a movable closure for said container, flexible transfer means connected to a fixed part of said container and also to said movable closure, means for pivoting said movable closure to said container to permit of the opening of said closure to a horizontal position Where the opening movement of same is arrested, and a member carried by said flexible transfer means and having a projection adapted to engage an edge of the article transferred.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name to this specification.

IVILLIAM N. NEIDIG. 

